published at 4:07am on 07/05/07

To Whom it May Concern,

I do not like to feel cheated, and I do not like to be lied to by companies to whom I have chosen to give my business. As such, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you an experience I had renting from Dollar a couple of weeks ago. On June 19th, I arrived in Charlotte, NC for a four day long trip. I had booked a car through the Dollar website and was to pick the car up at the airport. The car was available, and as was my usual practice, I informed the agent at the rental location that I would like to decline the insurance offered by Dollar as I know that between my car rental insurance and my credit card insurance, I would be covered.

It was at this time that I was informed by the agent that due to certain laws in North Carolina, I would need to make sure that I was covered for “Loss of Use” of the rental vehicle, in the case of an accident. I informed the agent that I was covered for damages to the vehicle by my credit card, but he assured me that he was intimately familiar with both American Express and Mastercard policies (the latter being the card with which I was renting my vehicle) and that they would definitely NOT cover me in the case of an accident. He recommended insurance that would cover this “Loss of Use,” which resulted in almost $100 added to my rental fee.

Of course when I contacted my credit card company to inquire about “Loss of Use,” I was informed that of course I would be covered, but that by purchasing the insurance through Dollar I had prevented myself from being covered by the insurance provided by my credit card.

I do not expect your employees to be able to make any claims about my person insurance situation. However, when I am told explicitly by your representative, an individual whose job it is to deal with these things every day, that because of specific circumstances in North Carolina, my card will not cover me, I am inclined to believe him. To find out later that this information that I received was just false was to find my trust betrayed and my wallet significantly emptied.

Between the fluctuating rates, gas penalties and insurance, renting a car is one of the most stressful parts of any travel experience. My last experience with your company was certainly a unsatisfactory one, and I would challenge you to think about how you may serve your customers better in the future.

Sincerely,

jcn

Update!

Dollar did right by me and issued me a refund for the insurance portion of my rental bill. Amazing! I was honestly not expecting anything back from them, but I must give their customer service credit for listening to my concern and rectifying the situation in a way that is completely satisfactory to me. Nice job, Dollar.

As you found out American Express does cover “Loss of use” but Dollar’s Damage Recovery Agents won’t provide the info requested by Amex so Amex won’t pay! Is this a racket or what? Who did you complain to at Dollar? I’ve had no luck getting this issue resolved.

sorry for long winded reply– copy of complaint I put in yesterday on Dollar website. FYI.

1) DELAY: We confirmed our reservation with Dollar Rent A Car TWICE before departure. After presenting our reservation and payment details at Dollar’s desk at San Francisco International Airport, we were forced to wait ONE HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES before our vehicle was ready. Please note—this was not waiting in line to speak with a representative, this was AFTER a representative had confirmed our reservation and taken our credit card details. This after traveling for 6+ hours with two children, ages one and three years. As an explanation, the Dollar representative said the car was “being cleaned”. The representative offered us a different type of vehicle that did not suit our needs and we refused.

2) DAMAGE CLAIM: When I returned the vehicle several days later, a Dollar representative conducted an inspection and pointed out a mark on the rear driver side panel. I inspected the mark and told the Dollar representative that it was only a MARK—not a dent or a scratch—that could be cleaned. The Dollar representative did not indicate that the issue remained unresolved, nor did he tell me to expect to be contacted by Dollar regarding damage to the vehicle in the future. The representative did not request my signature or comments on any damage report. Neither did the representative take any photographs of the vehicle in my presence. Imagine my surprise when, on September 17, 2007 I received a letter from Dollar claiming damage totaling $431.00 with an attached “Accident/Damage/Incident Report” and a photo of the alleged “damage”. Under the section titled “Describe How Accident Happened” someone, presumably the Dollar representative who conducted the damage inspection, had written “REFUSE TO SIGN” (sic).

3) THOUGHTS: How extremely irritating that a) a family traveling long distance was forced to wait over an hour for a car that was reserved in advance; b) a Dollar representative would point out a dirt mark and try to pass it off as “damage”; c) a Dollar representative failed to communicate to the customer that he considered the matter unresolved and that the customer would likely be contacted by Dollar in the future; but instead led the customer to assume that the transaction was complete; d) a Dollar representative would indicate a customer had “refused to sign” a damage report when in fact such a request had never been made of the customer; d) Dollar would claim $431 to clean a dirt mark off the vehicle.
After receiving this letter, I conducted an Internet search using the words “rental car damage dispute”—please note that I did NOT include the word “Dollar” in the search. I was shocked to note that TWO OF THE TOP THREE search results returned were links to websites that detailed Dollar customer complaints regarding disputed damage claims. How interesting…
Initially, I conceived of this communication as having two separate, unrelated complaints: the one hour and fifteen minute wait, and the frivolous damage claim. However, after contacting a representative from my credit card company, it occurred to me that perhaps there was a connection. I asked the credit card company representative if he could provide advice for disputing a damage claim from a rental car vendor. He said, in short, that car rental companies’ business model is not only to make a margin on renting cars; the margin contribution also comes from selling insurance to customers. In addition, a percentage of fleet maintenance costs can be mitigated by claiming damages against customers who do not purchase rental agency insurance packages. He said that car rental companies routinely claim damages in the $300-$900 range from customers who do not purchase the car rental company’s insurance package, because most customers have personal car insurance, or a credit card company, that will cover such charges, up to a certain amount. In this way, the car rental company can pass on the bulk of maintenance costs to those customers (and the customers’ credit card and car insurance vendors) who do not purchase rental agency insurance packages.
If this is true, the motivation for Dollar managers to maximize the sale of insurance packages, and also to maximize damage claims against customers who do not purchase insurance packages, clearly exists. One way to increase the probability of being able to file a damage claim against a rental customer is to minimize how much time the customer spends inspecting the vehicle prior to exiting the rental facility—theoretically, that would make it possible for the rental agency to claim damages against a customer who did not, in fact, cause those damages. What types of customers are least likely to conduct a thorough investigation? High on that list would have to be parents with young children on a long trip…force that customer, likely already stressed and exhausted, to wait an additional one hour and fifteen minutes, and the amount of time he spends conducting a thorough inspection further decreases…
Clearly, my speculation on the motivation for Dollar managers to file damage claims against non-insurance-package-buying customers traveling with young children is just that—speculation. Interesting perhaps for an investigative journalist at a national newspaper, or maybe for whomever is responsible for Dollar Rent A Car customer satisfaction, but not a discussion I want to continue with Dollar. However my denial of your damage claim is not speculation. I want this damage claim waived immediately.

Unbelievable. I have a story that will blow your mind. My husband and I rented a car from Dollar at the Seattle Airport on August 1 to be returned on August 5th. We drove the car to Spokane to attend an event on August 3rd. The car started making a terrible sound and caught fire as we were driving it back to Seattle on August 4th and had to be towed to the Spokane Dollar location. We were terrified when the car caught fire on the highway. When we called Dollar to assist us, they told us that they would have to send a tow truck to Spokane from Seattle which would have left us sitting on the side of the highway for 4 hours. We ended up having the car towed at our own expense to the Spokane Dollar location. The manager at the branch in Seattle told us they would reimburse us for our tow and for another car rental to get us back to Seattle. The Manager, Pele, from the Seattle office insured us that all would be taken care of and we would be refunded our money. When we got back to Los Angeles all that changed. They no longer allowed the manager to take our calls and told us that Claims would be dealing with the matter. Via Internet Search, we discovered that 85,000 of the make and model of our rental car, Nissan Altima 2006, have been recalled for engine fires. Dollar falsely claimed that we ran over something that caused the engine fire. Our insurance company has been handling the claim with Dollar. Yesterday, we received a bill from Dollar charging us for 11 weeks of car rental which they charged to my credit card. The amount is $4,151. They have had the car looked at by a mechanic. This 11 week car rental charge is completely erroneous. We are disputing this claim with the credit card company however, the way we have been treated by Dollar during this entire experience is deplorable. The charge was not authorized and we were told by the claims handler at Dollar that they would not charge us directly, they would send a bill outlining the charges. The bottom line is, we should not have to pay them a dime.

It seems like we’re all being cheated by Dollar Rent-A-Car. I went on a short trip recently and didn’t purchase the extra insurance (because it’s so expensive, and everyone knows that the rental car company will take you on that, and if you have regular insurance, you don’t really need THEIRS), and never having had an accident or even been issued a speeding or traffic ticket, I thought I was good to go. The trip went smoothly, to and from our destination with no problems. When I returned the car, the inspector pointed out a small crack on the bumper, which could very well have been there before I left because I didn’t walk around the car with the initial inspector (not thinking it was necessary). I told them that I had no idea where the crack came from because I had no accident, didn’t hit anything, etc. The only thing I could think of was when we were parked in a public lot, it may have gotten hit. When my insurance company and the Dollar Rent-A-Car claim company called me to later investigate, I told them exactly what had happened: that the trip went smoothly and that I was in NO ACCIDENT of any kind. However, Dollar kept insisting that I had had an accident and kept trying to get me to say that (I think I would know if I had one or not!), and of course my insurance picked up the bill, all except my deductible. However, I still wanted proof and when I called to speak with a Dollar agent who had been calling me to bug me about the payment, she said she would get out the proof immediatly to me via email (I wanted to compare their pictures to my pictures that I took of the damage and to see the damage report). Weeks went by and I had called numerous times asking where that proof was and the agent would not answer her phone or return my calls, and I NEVER got any proof, but they are claming that the damage was around $800!!! I ended up paying the damage but with absolutely NO PROOF whatsoever on their part,since they refuse to give you any and expect you to pay for something that you didn’t do and that was probably there when I left. PLEASE!!!! DON’T RENT FROM THIS RENTAL COMPANY!!!!

i had a tire blow out 5 minutes after renting a car from dollar they would not come to roadside assistance because i did not buy the insurance and made me ride on a spare for my entire 4 day vacation. also they were going to charge me for the tire what are my options

I rented a car out of Dollar rent a Car, LAX for a period of 3 days, over the new year weekend. A few days after the trip, I noticed a charge of 372$, instead of 280$. I called up customer service and figured out that I was being charged for an additional day. The time-out on my receipt was 1543 hrs and time-in was marked as 1615 hrs. I find two things deplorable:
1) The 1543 does not take into consideration the time we spent going out, finding a car, coming back in to complain that it was dirty, make some changes to insurance etc, go back out and finally drive out of the lot at 1645.

2) Since they don’t go out of their way to be particular about time-out, it is amazing that they are so particular about the time-in. Most rentals that I have been with have been fine with an hour’s period of grace for time-out, because they realize that it takes longer than just signing the dotted line and walking out of the building to actually start driving the car.

Anyways, I had to make a couple of calls to dollar. I must say their customer service was good enough to refund the extra day. But I still do not like the sneaky, under handed way in which this was done. My friend who returned the car should have waited at return, till the guy signed out and delivered the receipt. But since he had to rush to catch his flight, he did not do this critical step. I recommend that people always wait and get their final receipt, before leaving the place.

I used Dollar for a trip to Disney World Florida. I booked the car months in advance and this is what happened. On arriving they did not have the car I reserved. So oh well I got the next best thing. The woman at the desk told me I had to get insurance through them. My husband asked her how much and it added hundreds onto our bill. We declined because NJ motorists will be covered by their insurance anywhere. (we better for what we pay!!) The woman said ok circled the amount to be charged on my card and I signed the dotted line! BIG MISTAKE!!! Later on I discovered that they were charging my card for the insurance and gas that we declined this was $575 dollars I did not agree to. Needless to say I was completely upset. My husband got on the phone and was hung up on not once, not twice but 3 times. I was so angry I got in the car and started driving back to the airport to have this corrected. On the way we called the corporate headquarters where they apologized and told us to call our bank in an hour and it would be settled. SO I did and when I called the bank knew nothing. (Hair was pulled out, blood pressure at all time highs!) I talked to my bank and it took them to call, decline the charges and get it fixed. Then after all that they still charged me the wrong amount!! By the end of my vacation I couldn’t wait to complain to the manager. We waited in line and when I told the gentleman what happened his words shocked me. “What would you like me to do?” I said I would like to see a manager. And the amazing dollar people got on the phone. ( He was incapable to walk from his office to where I was) The manager was rude and only gave me a free day and did not charge me for gas. I will never use Dollar again, they made me lose a whole day of my vacation and couldn’t even do their job properly. PLEASE DO NOT USE THEM!!!

Dollar Dallas Love –
My wife made a wrong turn and went through a fully automated toll location (there are a number of these in the NW Dallas/Carrollton area if you don’t have a toll tag the Toll Authority bills you, by lic plate number) thus no way to pay the toll. She mentioned this to the agent when she returned the car. They said no problem we will bill your card for the toll. They did not mention PLUS a $25.00 service charge, we received additional credit card billing for $25.20 to cover the 20 cent toll charge. If you read the fine print Dollar will charge you the $25.00 for each toll charge. I am sure that we are not the only ones to be ripped off by this outrageous practice. I will add my description of renatal car customer service “sorry your upset – NEXT”

Reading these posts, it is obvious that several of you genuinely feel cheated by Dollar. While a couple of you appear to have valid complaints, others are almost laughable. Particulary the post by James. For the credit card company to accuse Dollar of attempting to charge their paying customers for damage in order to cover maintenance fees is just insanity. The loss damage waiver is offered for a number of reasons. Some renters have no personal auto insurance. Others may have auto insurance, but have a sizeable deductible. The agent at the counter has no idea what your policy covers and what it does not, therefore they offer the waiver and allow the renter to decide. Many renters are uneducated about their own policies and then want to blame the rental company when an insurance carrier declines to pay certain portions of the claim. And credit card insurance is little more than a bad joke! These guys offer the coverage so that you will use their card to rent, but then take anywhere from 60 to 90 days to resolve a claim….IF you jump through all the hoops. They also do not cover admin fees or loss of use. They claim that they will cover these fees if the rental car company provides a laundry list of proprietary documentation such as fleet utilization logs, knowing full well that what they are requesting is confidential and cannot be provided. This allows them to pass the blame on to the rental car company and look like the good guys. My point here is that things are not always as they appear. Its important to keep in mind that when renting a vehicle, you are taking possession of a 25 to 30 thousand dollar piece of equipment. You have to read what you are signing and make sure that you understand your own personal insurance/credit card coverages. This is your responsibility, not the rental car companies.

Once again the consumer is caught in the middle. If credit card insurance is a joke, the car companies are laughing all the way to the bank. Why should they get money for “loss of use” if they can’t document that they needed the car to meet their rental demands? That is just a new rip off. Confidential?? Baloney!! They either have cars to rent or they don’t. They have that documented. In any claim against someone, documentation should be sent. That is just reasonable. Eventually, common people will be able to put enough pressure on government to get these loss of use charges outlawed all together.

Also, if Travelguard can get an underwriter to sell these CDW waivers for $12 a day, why can’t Dollar and rest of them? Why do they charge $20 and up? Because they want to gouge out as much money as they can get, and they can get plenty since what they sell is not insurance, but just an agreement not to go after the customer for damages. So they do not have to worry about regulations in the insurance industry.
Here are some sites with articles discussing the issue.
Here are some articles to read around this issue.

Dewey…unfortunately your arguments are typical of today’s consumer who refuses to accept personal responsibility. To answer your question, Rental Car Companies should get money for Loss of Use because one of their vehicles has been damaged by a renter who chose to decline the optional loss damage waiver so that they could rent a 30 thousand dollar piece of equipment for 25 dollars per day rather than 45 dollars per day. Said vehicle must be taken to a repair facility, dropped off for repairs, and picked up after repairs are completed. Most consumers and insurance companies completely miss the point on loss of use. Loss of use is not loss of revenue. Its loss of use. Meaning that the rental location cannot rent, display, reserve, or use this vehicle while it is being repaired. Most state laws dictate that the rental facility is entitled to loss of use for the entire timeframe that the vehicle is out of commission. This means that if the car sits at the shop for 2 weeks waiting to be repaired, the consumer could be held responsible for loss of use for this full timeframe. In an effort to be fair, most, if not all, car rental companies only charge for the actual labor hours. Meaning that the consumer only pays for the number of hours it takes the repair facility to complete the actual repairs….not the full week that the car sat in the shop before repairs commenced.

I could go into greater detail here, but Im sure its pointless. It all comes back to personal responsbility and the sad truth is that a growing of people in this country simply have none.

I guess the word responsibility really struck me. I recently rented a car from Budget. I not only had to sit and wait because Orlando is nothing but confusion when you are trying to rent a car. But we were put in the wrong car, so they asked us to switch. We got out of the parking garage and realized in all the confusion we left a bag in the back seat. My son’s xbox 360, nintendo wii, all the games, controllers, cables, shoes, underwear, socks, and make up homework. This was all my childrens things and they were stolen. I know for a fact it was an employee because they were the only people in the car after us. I went right into the airport to find someone to help me, but didn’t get any help. Nobody knew anything and the kid that was working in the hut in the garage was gone for the day. How convenient. But little did the thief know he stole from a 7 year old on his birthday. Happy Birthday from Budget. With the economy right now we cannot afford to replace these items.

dollars rent a car. suck bad custumer services and rip off renter. alway claim that they don’t have the car that you rent want you upgrate something else charge for fee that don’t even known. bad experience once never rent from them again. people please stay away from this company.

WOW… how similar is this…. I just rented from dollar via a service I am trying out. When I was talking to the sales agent… he stated he had a special on insurance … I said no I had coverage. He said he would give me an upgrade for FREE and the insurance would be only 9.00 a day… they ended up asking me to click through the tiny screens, accepting all but the fuel, when I ask what the second insurance was for or second accept button, he stated it was part of the total… which should’ve been around 182.00 it stated on the agreement ESTIMATED charges, so I was assured when I returned the car the insurance and fees would adjust to what I was told by the sales agent. NOT SO… they are trying to charge me 213.30 but a whopping 20.99 a day for the “deal” on insurance I was promised. Who did you contact in order to get your issue straightened out please. I am not stupid I know the agents get paid to sell insurance on the rentals. The agent lied and that is not acceptable. Thank you for any help you can provide.

10.08.2009: I am furious and after reading your responses I think my blood pressure just went up. My brother was at Dollar Rent a Car in Tampa and had a temporary Visa card, as his wallet was stolen and he had to get a temporary replacement until his other card came in the mail. He called Dollar Rent a car prior to arriving at the rental location and they told him it was fine as long as he could prove that the card was his. When he traveled to Hillsborough County from Pasco to get to the rental car location, they would not accept the card. He was on his way to Miami with his family and was fully packed and ready to depart from the rental car location. One day after renting the car, he was on the interstate and was stuck in traffic. A semi came over a hill and didn’t realize that the traffic on the other side of the hill was completely stopped and damaged approximately 60 cars. One of which was Dollar’s Rent a car. His wife was a secondary driver on the car and no additional coverage was taken out as we both had full coverage insurance and were both authorized drivers. I specifically asked the dollar rental agent if anything happened to the car while one of us were driving who would be responsible, and I was told which ever approved driver that was driving the vehicle. CAN YOU BELIEVE that two years later I was served at my place of employment, THE SHERIFF OFFICE I MIGHT ADD, and notified that I was being sued for $8000 because the credit card that rented the car was in my name. I was given 20 days to reply. Not only are they sueing me, they are sueing the person who was driving the car. Her insurance company already has paid $9000 but since Dollar totalled the car out, they are charging me the remaining price of the vehicle. How is that possible? For one, Florida Highway Patrol said that the car was drivable but was only impounded due to their being fatalities involved. Additionally, why wait 2 years before filing a lawsuit against me. I don’t understand and I don’t have money just laying around to obtain an attorney as recommended. I guess there trying to sue anyone they can so they can keep there company afloat.

Rented a car from Dollar in Boston, car breaks down and they do deliver a new car to where I am and then a bill shows up for $300 for the tow…… I’m still fighting them on it! Who can tell me where to write, email etc?
thanks!

Dollar Rent a Crap, I picked up my car from Dollar at the port location in Ft. Lauderdale Fl. I picked it up at about 12:15
Pm on Mar.14 and dropped it off at Ft. Lauderdale Airport the next day at 12:00 and was charged 2 day rental because at the desk where I rented it they put the time at 11:41 AM but I had to wait over 35 minutes to get the car and then another 10 minutes before I could leave because the check on the car said not dents or anything and there were scrapes and little dents all over. But the best was I reserved a small car and they did not have any so i would have to wait a few hours or for $19 dollars I could have a car right away, What a pile of garbage , never rent from Dollar again. For 19 minutes I paid for Two days. They are a ripoff

I’ll never rent from Dollar or thrifty ever again first of all the swindled me to buying their liability INS after I returned the
car I called my insurance company and they told me that the same coverage that I have on my vehicles transfers over to
the rental. What a scam that Is. It gets better also when I
returned the I left a two pairs of Ray Ban sunglasses so I
called the girl who is in charge of the lost and found, 30
minutes after I dropped the car of she said she was going
to check, and the she was going to call me in an hour well
she never did I ended up going to the rental car adn she told me they found nothing, yea right. so I called back about an hour after that and she said she checked the and found nothing. well she did not check a storage comp between the
seats how she should, so I explained to her where they
were she said she I’ll check again and she was going to call
me back well she never did. Well I don’t buy her story because she said the car was not that dirty to check that
storage space so if there is trash there your going to
leave trash for the next customer. so she said the car won’t
come back for another week maybe the people that rented it
might return them yea right I’m not stupid someone who
cleans the car kept them never rent from Dollar or thrifty
they lost a good customer over 200 bucks.

On Dec 22, about 6 pm I arrived at the Tampa Dollar Counter after traveling from Sreattle. I had been up almost 20 hours. The car I reserved was available, everthingh seemed fine until the high pressure sales pitch for additional insurance, gas fill, up, my questions as to why I needed insurance from Dollar. This went on for at least 15 mins. The agent was very rude and had no name tag. When I asked him his name he held up the contract I had signed and ” your contract is terminated”. I asked was he stating I could not rent a car? He refused to answer and said he was calling the police. As I headed to the thrifty counter he walked over and said something to one of the clerks. On his way back to the Dollar counter he iad, “my name is Frank”. By the time I arrived the thrifty clerk said I can’t rent to you until the police clear you. Feeling I was correct I waited at least 45 mins for the police to arrive. I then went to the Thrifty clerk and asked if he knew when they would be here. He pointed at a wall phone and said “call them yourself”. I did and found out they had not been called and this was “franks” way of intimidating me. I asked for an officer to come to the terminal. When the officer showed up she spoke with Frank, then me. She said dollar/thrifty can refuse to rent without a reason. The story is longer, I will contact dollar and write a letter but I don’t have high hopes. If only I had checked websites before choosing them. I hope to see TDC exposed for the sly cheats they are. I do not mind paying for service but not the lying, fear tactics an now knowing I will not be rented to if I don’t purchase services.

Rented a car from dollar at the anchorage international airport. Drove it about 30 miles to my hotel and parked it. Next morning found the tire was flat due to a small screw. Tire was in otherwise new and undamaged condition. Put the spare on and notified dollar and they told me to return the car for a replacement. About three weeks after returning home I received a bill for $838.00 for the flat tire repair. Dollar took the car with the spare on it to a porche dealer in anchorage to have a new tire put on. Dealer had to order one and it took them 20 days to get it and install it. Bill was for a $135 new tire plus 20 days of down time. I could have fixed the flat with a $5 tubeless repair kit. Apparently dollar will either rip you off by trying to get you to purchase their overly expensive insurance, and if you decline, will rip you off for unnecessary “repairs” and their own mismanagement.

I rent a car from dubai international airport terminal 2 on 11th of october and returned on 15th.
AGREEMENT NUMBER : DA2S55546
CAR REGISTRATION NO : 15 16480
İ paid extra money for full coverage and there was small scratches around all of the car when i rent the car.
I didnt hit or cause any damage to the car until i returned it, and when i gave the car back your staff said everything is OK and made me sign on a tablet.
But they charged me 2.000 Turkish lira ( 2400 AED ) for those scratches that i didnt caue.I called your branch a Airport Terminal 2 and they said ‘’i did it’’ , and i had to make a police report ; if i hit the car i would call the police and make a report because i paid extra money for the FULL INSURANCE to not pay anything for these kind of things.
And your staff on the phone hung up the phone because of there was a costumer in there and he said he was going to call me in 10 minutes and he never called me back ( it has been 2 DAYS )
I am attaching the agreement to this mail, Please be institutional and professional and return my money back on my credit card.
And i forgot a bag in the car at airport there was an expensive professional digital CANON camera and 2 piece of women clothes that i bought as a present from GUESS, and the said they didnt find anything in the car but i am sure i left it in the car !